Inside the Gulen Compound

A visit to the Pennsylvania fortress of “The World’s most Dangerous Islamist”

Fethullah Gulen, allegedly “the most dangerous Islamist on planet earth,” is alive, well, and living in Pennsylvania with over $25 billion in financial assets.

From Pennsylvania, he has toppled the secular government of Turkey, established over 3,000 schools throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, created a new country called East Turkistan, and formed a movement that seeks to create a New Islamic World Order.

This reporter made a recent visit to Gulen’s 28-acre mountain complex at 1857 Mt. Eaton Road in Saylorsburg, PA - - the very heart of the Pocono Mountains.

The complex consists of a massive chalet that is surrounded by numerous out buildings, including recreational centers, dormitories, and cabins for visiting foreign dignitaries. The property also contains a large pond, a helicopter pad, and, reportedly, firing ranges.

The first floor of the chalet contains a dining hall capable of serving a small army. The second floor is an open area with a library, computer station, and open areas with divans where disciples pour over Turkish newspapers, Islamic texts, and the collected wisdom of their Hocaefendi (“religious master”). Gulen himself resides on the third floor and rarely emerges to meet with his followers, let alone inquisitive reporters.

The road leading into the complex is blocked by a metal gate and a sentry hut.

Within the hut are high definition televisions that flash images from the security cameras that have been strategically placed throughout the complex. The post is manned day and night by Turkish guards, who speak little or no English.

Before the hut is a sign that reads “Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center.” No visitor in his or her right mind could believe that the tiny, one room building serves as a house of worship, let alone a place for a weekend retreat. The building contains only a metal desk, two straight chairs, the monitors, and the sentries who, upon the occasion of this reporter’s visit, offered no word of welcome but instead called upon other members of the complex to escort this reporter and his photographer sidekick from the premises.

The neighbors complained to this reporter of gunfire from fully automatic weapons coming from the complex and the presence of a surveillance helicopter that combs the property in search of unwanted intruders.

They maintain that an army of approximately 100 Turkish guards stand watch over the property in order to protect their reclusive leader.

Combing the parameters of the property, one can easily spot the guards. They wear suits, white shirts, and ties and do not look like traditional Islamists in cloaks and turbans.

According to a source within the compound, the guards and other members of the compound follow their Hocaefendi’s orders without question and refrain from marrying until age fifty per his instructions. When they do marry, the spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner, as dictated by Gülen himself.

The women do not live within the complex but rather in modest houses along Mt. Eton Road.

Little about Gulen, as U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan discovered, is known – - not even his date of birth. Some of his followers maintain that he was born in 1934; others 1938; and still others 1942.

How dangerous is Gulen?

In his public statements, Gulen espouses a liberal version of Sunni/Hanafi Islam and promotes the Muslim notion of hizmet - - altruistic service to the common good.

Despite the presence of the armed guards at his Pocono fortress, Gulen has condemned terrorism and called for interfaith dialogue. He claims to have met with Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.

Whether these meetings with Christian and Jewish leaders actually occurred is questionable. On his website, Gulen says that he has a UNECO award from Pope John Paul II in October, 2005. John Paul II died on April 2, 2005.

In private, Gulen has stated that “in order to reach the ideal Muslim society every method and path is acceptable, [including] lying to people.”

In a sermon that was aired on Turkish television, Gulen said:

You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers ... until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria ... like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it ... You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey ... Until that time, any step taken would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence ... trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.

Under the AKP, Turkey has become a militant Islamic state, transferring its alliance from Europe and the United States to Russia and Iran

Anyone doubting the incredible power wielded by Gulen need only take note of the achievements of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP)- - a party Gulen formed this party as soon as he arrived in Pennsylvania. By 2003, the AKP became the governing party in Turkey and a powerful force throughout the Muslim world. Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s first Islamist President, is a Gulen disciple, along with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education.

Under the AKP, Turkey has become a militant Islamic state, transferring its alliance from Europe and the United States to Russia and Iran. It has moved toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria and created a pervasive anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-America animus throughout the populace.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of “TRT al Turkiye”, the new channel of the state run TV station TRT, Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey will always be on the side of Muslims wherever they are.

Within Turkey, Gulen also formed a vast conglomerate called Kaynak Holding, which today includes some 15 companies involved in the retail, I.T., construction, and food industries. The main division, Kaynak Publishing, maintains 28 publishing labels. It produces hundreds of books per year on and by Gülen, in addition to books on the glories of the Ottoman Empire and the achievements of militant Islam.

Gulen also owns Feza Media Group, which publishes the Today’s Zaman (Turkey’s leading daily newspaper) and the magazine Aksiyon. A subsidiary of Feza is Samanyolu Broadcasting, which operates most of Turkey’s TV stations. Gulen and his followers also control Bank Asya, now Turkey’s largest Islamic bank, with billions of dollars in assets, and TUSKON, a Turkish businessmen’s association, with 50,000 companies as members.

With his vast resources, Gulen established thousands of schools throughout Central Asia - - - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan - - in order to create a massive pan-Islamic state. Noted whistleblower Sibel Edmonds explains: “Turkey shares the same heritage/race as the entire population of Central Asia, the same language (Turkic), the same religion (Sunni Islam), and of course, the strategic location and proximity.”
According to Bayram Balci, a Turkish scholar, the Gulen schools seek to expand “the Islamization of Turkish nationality and the Turification of Islam” in order to bring about a universal caliphate ruled by Islamic law.

Because of the subversive nature of these institutions, these schools have been outlawed in Russia and Uzbekistan.

Even the Netherlands, a nation that embraces pluralism and tolerance, has opted to cut funding to the Gulen schools because of their imminent threat to the social order.

But Gulen’s 150-plus charter schools in the United States, which advance Gulen’s international agenda have received little national attention.

All of these charter schools - - which advance the New Islamic World Order - - are fully funded by American taxpayers.

A partial listing of the Gulen schools throughout the U.S.A. is as follows:

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D., is the author of such best-selling books as The Day of Islam, The Al Qaeda Connection, Osama’s Revenge: The Next 9/11, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Crusades and The Vatican Exposed. An award-winning journalist, he is a frequent guest on such national news networks as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR.

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